Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/541

 APPENDIX 519 Subsequently he played a prominent part in the renewed attempts at reuniting the eastern and western churches. He fell into disfavoui- with Cantacuzenus and was banished to a monaster}-. His Roman Histor}- in 37 Books begins with the Latin capture of Constantinople in 1204, and reaches to 1359. But the greater part of this period, 1204-1320, is treated briefly in the first 7 Books, which may be regarded as an introduction to the main subject of his work, namely his own times (1320-1359). This history, like that of Pach^-meres, is disproportionately occupied with theological disputation, and is, as Ivrumbacher says, " eine memoirenhafte Parteischrift im vollsten Sinne des Wortes ". In style, Gregoras essays to imitate Plato ; for such base uses has Platonic prose been exploited. [Onlj- Books 1-24 were accessible to Gibbon, as he complains (ed. Boivin, 1702). The remaining Books 25-37 (numbered 23-36) were first edited by Bekker in the Bonn ed. vol. 3, 1855. Among other works of Gregoras may be mentioned his funeral oration oa Theodore Metochites, ed. by jMeursius, 1618 (Th. Metochitae hist. Rom., liber singularis).^ For the Emperor Cantacuzenu.s and his history see above, cap. Ixiii. and cp. p. 495, n. 21. [In the Bonn series, ed. by Schojien in 3 vols., 1828-32.] NicEPHORcs Blemmydes was, beside George Acropolites, the most im])ortant literary figureat the coujt of the Emperorof Nicaea. He was born at Constantinople (c. 1198), and soon after the Latin Conquest migrated to Asia ; and in Prusa, Xicaea, Smyrna, and Scamander he received a liberal education under the best masters of the dav. He became proficient in logic, rhetoric and mathematics, and studied medicine. He finallj- embraced a clerical career ; he took an active part in the coutrover.sies with the Latins in the reign of John Yatatzes, and was a teacher of the young prince Theodore Lascaris. The extant (not yet jniblished) correspond- enceof Theodore and Blemmydes testifies their friendly intimac,v. But Blemmydes was an opinionated man ; he was constantly ofi'endingand taking offence ; and he finally became a monk and retired to a monastery at Epliesus which he built himself. He had the refusal of the Patriarchate in 1255, and he died c. 1272. His autobiography and his letters (monuments of pedantry and conceit) have im- portance for the histor}- of his time. Besides theological, scientific, and other works, he composed an icon basilike (^acriKiKos avBpids) for his royal pupil.'* [The autobiography (in two parts) has been edited by A. Heisenberg, 1896. An edition of the Letters is a desideratum.] In the first quarter of the 14th century, a native of the Morea, certainly half a Frank, and possibly half a Greek, b}' birth, composed a versified chronicle of the Latin conquest of the Peloi)onnesus and its history during the 13th century. This work is generally known as the Chronicle of Morea. i** The author is thoroughly Grecized, so far as language is concerned ; he writes the vulgar tongue as a native ; but feels towards the Greeks the dislike and contempt of a ruling stranger for the conquered pojmlation. He may have been a Gasmul (Tacr/xovKos, supjwsed to be derived from ;/as (gar^on) and laidug), as the offspring of a P'rank father bj- a Greek mother was called. It is a thorouglily prosaic work, thrown into the form of wooden political verses ; and what it loses in literary interest through its author's lack of talent, it gains in historical objectivity. A long prologue relates the events of the first and the fourth crusades ; the main part of the work embraces the history of the Priucii)alit3' of Achaea from 1205 to 1292. The book appealed to the Franks, not to the Greeks, of the Peloponnesus ; and shows how Greek had become the language of the conquerors. It was freely translated into French soon after its composition ; and this version (with a con- tinuation down to 1304), which was made before the year 1341, is preserved (imder the title ' ' The Book of the Conquest of Constantinople and the Empire of Roumania "It will be found in Migne, P. G., vol. 142, p. 611 sqt]. lu It is sometimes referred to as Bi^Aioi' r>is KoiryKco-Tos, a title which the first editor Buchon gave it without authority.